Score: 9.4/10 [8 reviews]

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Mels Makhani (Butter Chicken) Masala product reviews

Butter Chicken is the famous silky, butter sauce and is an all time favourite! A tomato based masala with a secret blend of spices all slow cooked together to bring out the flavours. There is however no butter in Butter Chicken! Cream gives it the buttery taste. Also known as Murgh Makhanwala and originating from North India, it is savoured with hot, buttered naan bread. Butter Chicken is also delicious with steamed Basmati rice.

For a delicious vegetarian option, make up the curry sauce and then slip in some cubes of Indian Cottage Cheese (Paneer), along with minted peas.

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Review by: shellcruise (Shelley)Dated: 12th of October, 2012

This Review: 9.5/10

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Friday night has been takeaway night in our house lately but tonight we decided to cook the Mel's Goumet Indian at Home Makhani (Butter Chicken). I have to say it was a great decision.

We have a one year old who happily lets us know when she does not enjoy something by throwing it all over the floor or the high chair - but tonight she actually ate virtually all of it, which is so good. Our three year old has been 'full' after eating some of her dinner as of late but she ate the whole lot and said it was delicious and my husband had seconds.

My husband decided to cook it as he loves to follow recipe based meals. His only grumbles were: it doesn't state how long to cook the meal, its pretty much trial and error. Also we usually brown our chicken before adding to meals but in this case it got you to make the sauce first and then add the raw chicken and let it simmer in its own juices. He said next time he would rather throw it in the slow cooker.

The aromas coming from the kitchen were divine. Every time he went to check on the meal he would comment about how good it smelt. We had Jasmine Rice with it and next time think we will also have Naan Bread. We had already made some natural yoghurt although again next time we will follow there recommendations and make fresh Raita.

Definitely will be having it again and for $10 its a good price for how good it tasted compared to buying Indian from our local takeaway place. Also love that its Gluten free and no added colours, preservatives or MSG.

Review by: black-kat (Dave)Dated: 6th of October, 2012

This Review: 9.5/10

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I love curries, I try to have them as often as I can, but sadly as I am generally the only one in the family who like curries, these times are normally few and far between. How ever now I can finally say that I have found a curry that even the rest of the family likes.

I decided that rather than follow the directions on the pack perfectly I would add double the cream, so that it would be a tad bit more diluted for my families palate. Well that call was spot on as I'm sure that with less cream it would have been a tad bit too spicy for the rest of the household. But as it was the mix that I used was spot on and everyone loved it.

The texture of the curry was smooth and had that creamy look to it that we have come to expect from masala curries, the colour wasn't quite as I normally expected, but that was probably more a result of my cooking than the mix as it looked the right colour coming out of the bag, and i wasn't really going to worry too much on how it looked as the more important thing is the taste, and in this instance the taste was perfect, it felt and tested as creamy as it looked. While it wasn't as spicy as I normally like it, they rest of the family loved it and even though we are only a family of four, the 6 serves were completely polished off.

This is certainly one that will be in the shopping more often.

Review by: tessak (Tess)Dated: 4th of October, 2012

This Review: 9.3/10

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Alright first and foremost it must be noted that we eat a lot of indian foods in this house, simply because we are big fans and have been since hubby worked for an Indian restaurant in chch, and butter chicken is of course the favorite.

So because of this it also means we have tried many of the different butter sauce mixes on the supermarket shelves, and until today we had our favorite mix too. But there is always room for improvement, and Mels Makhani *Butter Chicken* Masala seems to have made those improvements...this stuff is the ultimate in butter chicken mix.

The directions say to use 1 cup of water and up to 500ml of cream, after reading other reviews on here, we did however decide to have a play around with the amount of water and cream we would use. This decision was not made lightly, as one of the most annoying things with other mixes is the lack of sauce when it comes to dishing up...we like sauce lol but it seemed that perhaps an entire cup of water was slightly to much. We decided on starting with quarter of a cup of water first, mixing the mix into the water and if needed we would add more. But it seemed that a quarter cup was plenty of water. As far as the cream went we used 250mls. To us this seemed to be the perfect balance of water, mix and cream.

The end result was a perfectly balanced mix of sauce, and chicken...and the flavor was perfection. The spices could be tasted right through the chicken, so it absorbs into the meat fantastically. And the aroma that filled the house, was awesome! And there was still enough sauce to mix through the rice too.

We loved that the packet said it would serve 6, as most say to serve 4, and as a family of 5 it means having to stretch it a little bit further. It was also quick and simple to make which is fantastic when you have hungry kids constantly asking how much longer dinner is gonna be. And what's more is, my kids polished off their plates and wanted seconds..that is a mammoth effort for my picky wee eaters.

Unfortunately the $10 price tag means we wouldn't buy it in the weekly groceries it would be considered a treat for us, but that aside it is definitely worth the dollars and we will definitely be purchasing again.

Review by: crackerjack (Steve)Dated: 3rd of October, 2012

This Review: 10/10

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I have loved Indian food since a working-holiday in Mysore in 1963, which is now called the state of Karnataka. I was staying with a friend in Bangalore and he introduced me to a whole new menu of fine foods, all of which made my poor mouth burn and my eyes water, but they tasted so good it was worth it.

I have tried many "Butter Chicken" recipes from places as diverse as an American restaurant, an Australian food-court, a street-cart vendor on the road in London, and right here in my own kitchen. None tasted as good as this for this price. The packet said this would feed six people, but I often get "surprise family visits" within 10-15 minutes of a courier turning up, so when I knew this was coming I got prepared.

Wanting to do something a bit different, I cooked this in a crock-pot in the oven. It meant the meat stayed very tender but also the flavour got pushed deeper into the flesh as it cooked. This made for some nice chunky meat full of rich aromatic herbs and spices and not a pool of chicken fibres matted with sauce and rice. The sauce, because I knew the moisture would be trapped, was not a problem to deal with - I just put in less water and use sour cream and some cream cheese instead of the liquid cream.

Served hot and fresh over a heaped plate of steaming basmati rice, it was a perfect way to feed the whanau who "just popped over to see how Koro was doing" today. There were 8 of us and there was more than enough to go around. Everyone commented that my cooking was improving remarkably until one of the younger mokopuna asked what the shiny silver bag on the bench was all about. I had to laugh and admit to my "secret help" for this meal. Some of the older ones looked very carefully at the packet and left looking very thoughtful. It wasn't until nearly an hour later I realised the packet had also departed with someone, so I am expecting a dinner invite soon.

A wonderful meal, so easy to make and so very open to different adjustments. Use more liquid if you want a really saucy dish, use less of you want more of a stew. Try it in a slow-cooker or fry-pan or casserole dish, or get really creative and cook it then wrap it in bread dough and make stuffed rolls. One idea that popped up in conversation was to make this and let it cool, the wrap it in mashed potato, roll in bread crumbs and deep-fry them. I really like that idea actually. That may be what I try next, since I went out and bought 4 more packets of various flavours from the same range.

Review by: kiwigirl04 (Sharlene)Dated: 3rd of October, 2012

This Review: 9.8/10

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When I was given the chance to review this product I jumped to it, I love butter chicken and I am going to find one my kids will eat too. When I got this product I read it and it said Gluten Free, well that was it, another meal was being replaced with butter chicken for weds night.

The instructions were really easy to understand and follow so on the walk home from preschool I stopped at the dairy and got the cream, I already had the chicken.

It took me from start to finished about 25mins to make all up but that's because I left it simmering a little longer, the flavours were great the best I have had for a long time, the smells were yummy throughout the house and the biggest test was to come.

Plating it up, I served it on rice. I served the kids a plate with rice and a few bits of chicken on it, they ate it without a blink of the eye and asked for more, so I gave them more but with the sauce this time and that was gone too. After they both had 3 helpings each and I had one huge helping it was all gone. The kids ate it, it passed the taste test.

Now I went to tip out the remaining sauce that was in the pan and decided to put it into a freezer container to save for another butter chicken another day, so will be interesting on how it thaws out.

I would recommend this product and I personally would pay the $10 if I can get 2 meals out of it and its Gluten Free so safe for my daughter. I am so glad I took up the offer to review this, have found myself a butter chicken.

Review by: tucker (Karl)Dated: 30th of September, 2012

This Review: 9.8/10

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I absolutely adore Indian cuisine, but I admit I am most used to the sort of dishes you buy at the local foodcourt, more than the really traditional dishes, so to find a way to make foodcourt-favourite Butter Chicken at home, that has a traditional taste... I was hooked. On top of that, I thought this would be a great way to test-run the Quarter Acre Pot portable slow-cooker.

So, taking into account that the recipe on the pack wasn't designed for a slow-cooker, I decided to 'wing it' in true Kiwi style, and just go with what made sense. The results still, as I suspected, tasted utterly amazing. It had plenty of flavour, and a rich colour... it was one of the best Butter Chicken meals I have eaten in years, and it was certainly the best one I had ever prepared at home.

I was a little surprised by just how mild the spice heat was... almost not really there at all, but this made it perfect as a way to encourage my family - who are not 'spice' fans at all - to try some Indian cuisine. Even my 4 year old fussy eater was keen to finish his bowl, and was quite happy to have more the next day. Because we are working on healthier eating, and thus had a far higher proportion of rice in the meals, we actually managed to get 12 portions out of this one serving of sauce! That included using my toastie pocket maker to make a lunch-to-go for myself - which was amazing, even with the reheated rice.

Would I eat this one again? Most certainly, though for myself I would add a bit of extra seasoning to add some 'heat' into my portion. Would I be keen to try some of the other flavours in the range? 100% yes. If this is the 'entry level' meal, the quality is such that I certainly want to see what else is on the menu too!

Review by: sweetpea (Sarah)Dated: 29th of September, 2012

This Review: 9.0/10

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I ussually make my butter chicken from scratch so tonight it was nice to just be able to use a packet that contained all natural ingredients. (I must say as well that I actually liked "Mel's" a lot more than the one I make...) I had my chicken and cream at the ready and Miss Four and I made our roti's and rice so we were all set to go.

We followed the instructions, to begin, by adding one cup of water to the packet mix. Immediately I thought this was too runny and regreted having added all the water. Next up we added our chicken. The packet says "1 kg of chicken" but with only two adults and three children (who were unlikely to be eating this) we only used 500 g of diced chicken breast.

After cooking for a few minutes I went to add the cream. As this was already so liquid I only added about 50ml of cream. I left it to cook for a while until I was happy the chicken was well cooked.

This meal was incredibly liquid so I poured it directly onto the rice still annoyed I had added water. (I won't next time!)

My first surprise was Miss Five quickly eating hers and asking for more of the yummy sauce! The sauce was very, very mild and both Miss Five and Miss One loved it. We adults did also and with our big stack of rotis quickly sopped it all up! Yummy!

A very enjoyable dish that I am still savouring. I love that it is 100% natural with no additives. I would definitely buy this for a dinner party as it made cooking so easy but at $10 a packet would probably not use this for an everyday dinner.

Review by: kymmage (Kym)Dated: 28th of September, 2012

This Review: 8.5/10

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We had a dinner party tonight and we shared this product as a group. Our chef (a friend offered) had 1kg of chicken, 500ml of full cream, roti and loads of Jasmine rice. The first thing he said was, he would brown the chicken first rather than follow the instructions. The instructions suggested making the sauce and then cooking the chicken from raw in the sauce. I agreed that browning the chicken first felt safer so that's what we did.

Once the water, sauce and approximately 200 ml of the cream was in the fry pan, he asked if he needed to keep going with the cream. There was so much liquid, we decided to leave it at that, and simmered to reduce. We both remarked on the colour of the sauce. It was a very pale salmon colour and obviously very creamy.

Once the sauce had simmered and the roti and rice was cooked, we served the meal. My husband was a bit concerned about the red liquid running on top of the sauce. We explained it was oil. It did look a little disturbing, but we ignored it and went onto the taste test.

Everyone commented on the mild taste of the sauce. It was a good level of heat for my husband, who doesn't do curries very often. He called it a good entry level curry, and even felt like he could have handled a bit more of a kick. My friends who like spicy hot curries said it had a nice flavour but no heat to it. They did say that it was a great adult curry paste. The chef felt that usually packets have too much salt or are too sweet and he didn't feel this had any of those issues.

I felt there was very little heat to it at all. But the flavour of tomato and garlic and curry was there. Most of us went back for seconds and there was plenty of food between the 4 adults and one child eating.

I liked that this is a New Zealand made product and it's gluten free. Its great that it is 100% vegetarian before you add the meat. That means that my friends who don't eat meat could easily use this with tofu or just by itself with rice and naan or roti bread.

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